


The answer you get isn't always the answer you want.

by Celticas



Series: Trope Bingo [6]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, Kid Fic, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2019-11-01
Packaged: 2021-01-16 06:48:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21266804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Celticas/pseuds/Celticas
Summary: Tony really shouldn't go snooping where he isn't wanted...





	The answer you get isn't always the answer you want.

The bedraggled group stumbled down the ramp of the Quinjet. The latest fight was tough, semi-AI drones that for some reason looked like everyday pigeons that had a tendency to explode when touched or when in close proximity to anything else alive. The flock of robots didn’t work together and it had taken Iron Man an embarrassingly long time to find the frequency they had been using.

Shuffling through the wide glass doors into the showers and change rooms that Tony had installed for the team’s use, their personal electronics came to life with a beep and a buzz. Early on, they had instituted a team blackout except for official comms. Thor had received a message from Darcy and been distracted in the middle of the fight. Clint had bitched about the decision in the debrief, but when Coulson had agreed with Captain America he had given it up as a lost cause.

A buzz that none of the had heard before drowned out everything else.

“Shit!” Clint growled, racing across the open space between the team and the lockers. Almost throwing his bow into its case, he dug out his phone and began swiping furiously. “Coulson?” Their handler better still be on comms.

“I’ve got it Hawkeye. Meet you downstairs in 5.”

The rest of them were left bewildered as Clint turned into a tornado of movement. Uniform ripped off and replaced with his civilian jeans, shirt and hoodie, boots still untied on his feet as he ran to the elevator. Jarvis, sensing something was wrong, had the car waiting, doors snapping closed behind the archer. The boys all turned to look at Natasha, obvious requests for explanations on their faces. Unwilling to admit that she was as clueless as they were, she raised a judgemental eyebrow at them all and wandered off to the showers. Even if she knew she wouldn’t tell, an unspoken agreement to not dig (too much) into each other’s private lives was mostly upheld.

They didn’t see Clint again that day. The team dragging themselves through a debrief with Hill, whatever had taken Clint away had apparently also drawn Coulson in. That was never a good thing, Tony took too much joy in rilling the Deputy Director up and she couldn’t help but take the bait.

Hill glowered when Tony kept asking where the two missing men were. Finally, she lost it, telling him that they were both Agents of SHIELD and as such were sometimes required to undertake need to know missions. She walked out when he followed up with a crack about Clint and Coulson’s ‘don’t need to know’ activities.

He was also absent from the traditional post-mission meal and movie (the 2000 Charlie’s Angels being that night’s choice). And breakfast the next morning.

When no one had heard anything from either of them by lunch time the next day, the official end of Tony’s patience was found. Locking himself in his workshop, he got to work. He started with the notification that had started it all. A burner that had since been disconnected. Fuck. SHIELD’s servers weren’t any more helpful, showing them as on mission, code named Callisto: see file for more information. There was no file though. File. File. It was an actual, paper file! He couldn’t hack that!

Fine! They had driven him to it. Grumbling about shadow governments, he tapped in a few commands and waited for the program to load.

“Are you sure sir? I was under the impression that this was a ‘break glass in case of emergency’ program?” Jarvis lowered his music to be heard. The judgement loud in his voice.

Without anything to really argue back with, he poked at the keyboard defiantly, setting the program running anyway. Two dots, one purple and one blue, appeared on a map. They were so close together they may as well have been a single point. Throwing the coordinates at this suit he left without taking in the location on the map.

He was just going to do a fly-by. Make sure they were ok. Clint hadn’t looked happy when he had stormed out of the tower the night before. He was just being a good teammate, checking on them.

The flight was a lot shorter than he had expected. Swinging north almost immediately, he was away from the city and curving gently over a swathe of green fields and forests. The only building a castle like house in the midst of a well manicured garden.

“Scan.”

The suit went crazy. Alarms blaring and the HUD flashing red. Amongst the noise, it was difficult to figure out what was wrong.

_ Mr Stark. _

A voice he sort of recognised but not really, sounded IN HIS HEAD!

_ Please feel free to come down and say hello. _

The suit tipped down as if he had shifted to tell it to land. Which he had not… had he?

The alarms and flashing red stopped as he touched down. Coulson and a man in a wheelchair were waiting for him.

“Stark.” Agent didn’t look happy.

The suit peeled away, leaving him standing in front of the other two men feeling like a ten year old dragged to see the principle. 

“Agent.”

Coulson raised an eyebrow. Tony wilted.

“I was worried.” He admitted.

Coulson turned on a heel and walked towards the building. Tony tripped over himself to follow. The man in the wheelchair watched them go.

Silently, they passed through richly decorated, stone corridors. A group of children hurried past at one point.

Coulson pushed on a door which opened to reveal a child’s bedroom. Clint was on the bed with a young girl cuddled up to his side. One arm around her shoulders.

“Tony meet Sarah. Sarah this is Tony Stark.” Clint introduced.

Shyly, Sarah hid her face in Clint’s arm. She was almost engulfed by Clint’s larger form. She waved without looking up. 

“Wha?” Tony gurgled out.

“She’s my daughter.” Clint’s smile was shiteatingly wide. Loving having struck Stark speechless.


End file.
